Chapter Six:
Later that day…
"Cheer up girly, no need to pout like that!" The rather large waitress
patted her on the back. "We all get stood up at one point or another." The
woman's cheery face caused Sango to smile.
"Well actually I'm not being st-"
"Come now! Don't go into denial. It's all right. It happens to the best of
us. Just come to the bar and have a piece of cake. A nice slice of red
velvet'll make it better, it always does." The woman grabbed Sango's arm and
dragged her to the bar. 'It looks like someone's been following their own
advice a little too much,' Sango commented to herself. The woman appeared to
have eaten quite a few slices of cake during her dating experiences.
She sat down on one of the high stools. An iron pole held it up, the white
paint was peeling off. She twisted the seat around so that she was facing
the bar. She was in a small café waiting for Inuyasha. 'Sometimes I don't
think he realizes the importance of these meetings. We do this so he knows
what to say in court, and since I don't have an office I thought he'd like
to come here so he could eat or something while we talked.' She sighed. This
was a tough enough job already, but putting Inuyasha in the mix almost
pushed her off the edge.
She rested her head in the palm of her head as she stared at the menu. The
white letters were on a green backdrop. 'It reminds me of the shirt Kohaku
was wearing when he-'
"Here you go, doll!" The cheery waitress pushed a small plate in front of
Sango. She was thankful her thoughts had been cut off.
"Thank you." Sango picked up her fork and slowly broke a piece off of the
slice. She smiled at the waitress, who was staring at her, before taking a
bite. She slowly chewed on the sweet morsel, surprised by the delectable
taste. "Mmm…" she mumbled as she dug the fork in for more.
"You sure like it, don't you?" the waitress asked happily. Sango nodded as she took another bite.
By the time she was finished it was close to dinnertime. The sun had gone
further down in the sky, and she needed a solid meal, even if she was only
hungry enough for a small one. 'I hope I don't gain any wait because of
this.' She stepped down and walked to one of the tables. 'I don't want her
talking to me…or staring at me the whole time.' The waitress had had an odd look
in her eyes as she stood looking at Sango earlier.
She opened the menu that had been lying on the table. It wasn't very large-
it was only a café. She hummed lightly as she searched the contents of the
menu. 'The grilled salmon sounds nice,' She looked back at the bar; the
waitress was still staring at her. 'But I think I'll order something that
can be cooked faster…' She decided on a grilled chicken salad.
As she waited to be served, she made a quick call to Inuyasha's house. She
heard the phone being picked up from her cell.
"Hello?" came a husky voice from the other side.
"Sesshoumaru?" she asked lightly.
"Yea. Is this Sango?" He quickly recognized her voice. "Is Inuyasha being
stubborn or something?"
"Well…not exactly, he isn't here."
"Dammit." She heard the man curse on the opposite end of the phone line.
"It's okay," she assured. "I just wanted him to tell me the story again,
make sure he didn't leave anything out."
"Okay? This is not okay! His life depends on this trial!"
"S-sorry, sir," she stuttered.
"No, I'm sorry, I over reacted."
"No, you didn't. I'm going to be paid a lot of money for this; I have to keep
my act together," she announced.
"That's not it, Sango. I should have watched Inuyasha more closely. He tends
to get caught up in other things."
"Other things?" Now she was curious.
"You know, his classmates. Inuyasha has a very hot temper."
"Oh. I see. Even though I haven't known him for long, I can only imagine."
She stressed the last few words, trying desperately to lighten the mood by a
joke. She only received silence. "Sesshoumaru, sir?"
"What?"
"Oh, I thought you had gone or something for a minute." She felt a little
nervous whenever she talked to him; he always seemed so stern and stressed.
And she felt nervous like that right now. But she supposed she would be like
that too if her brother was in Inuyasha's situation.
"No, I'm just thinking."
"About?" she inquired.
"Where Inuyasha could be. He hated the juvenile hall. I can't imagine what
he could possibly thinking that he'd miss a meeting with you. If he doesn't
get the death penalty, he could be stuck in jail for the rest of his life…"
He trailed off.
"That won't happen," she assured.
"Well, that's what I'm hoping."
"Well, that's what I'm guaranteeing. I'm not going to let anything happen to
Inuyasha. I promise."
"Well, I hate to break it to you, but it doesn't look too hopeful for my
brother. I appreciate that a lawyer with credentials such as yours would
take on a case with that numbskull."
She sighed. "It's nothing... Besides, it's not like there's a line of people
waiting to be represented by me." She paused for a moment. "Sesshoumaru, you
must really love your brother."
"Wha?" He seemed to be caught off guard.
"I know you wouldn't want to admit, you're just as stubborn as Inuyasha"
"Hey!"
"But," she continued, "the two of you really stick up for each other."
"Well…"
"It's all right, you don't have to admit anything to me, I'm just a lawyer."
She smiled. "Good night, I'll call back tomorrow.
"Okay, bye."
She clicked her phone off. "They're so cute!" She smiled to herself. The
brothers really were close…in their own special way. 'Now…when is that
dinner of mine getting here?'
It was just a salad, and she could have sworn she'd been waiting for well
over ten minutes. 'After waiting this long it better be garden fresh! And by
that I mean the lettuce better be getting cut out of the patch right this
instant!' She tapped her heal against the wooden floor. She wasn't the most
patient person, and she was going to leave when someone plopped himself on
the chair across form her.
"Oh Inuyasha! You're he- Who are you?" She had been excited, that is until
she saw an unfamiliar face across the table from her. She felt a frown form
across her face.
"It's me... Shippo."
"Huh?" She gave the man a quizzical look, and leaned towards him to whisper.
"Shippo, what are you doing here? And why are you dressed like that?"
He smiled. 'Yea, that's him.' She recognized the young man's toothy grin.
"I'm on the job, of course."
"Then why are you talking to me? I could blow your cover."
"Yea, but right now it looks like I've got a reason to be here," he said, as
he glanced across the room, not that he needed to. He was a demon, he could
probably tell everything going on in the room through his sense of smell and
his acute hearing.
"Then what type of person are you looking for?" she asked casually.
"Well actually, she'll be walking down the street in about two minutes."
"Oh really?" She raised an eyebrow. "What did she do?"
"Oh nothing!" he sang. "She's just been…how can I say this? …A bad girl." He
smiled devilishly.
She laughed. "Damn Shippo, you sound so professional. It's quite
reassuring."
He cracked a smile. "Scary thing is... I'm the best in the business." He held
the menu just below his eyes and darted them from one side of the room to
another. He then jerked the menu up to cover his eyes again.
She laughed. He was pretty funny, at least as far as she was concerned.
A bell rang as the door of the café opened. It signaled that someone had
entered. Sango didn't bother to turn; Shippo was amusing her.
She heard a woman's laughter and a man's voice...but why did they both sound
so familiar? She didn't know any couples. When she turned around to see them
her eyes widened. 'They can't be…!'
-
She shivered as she brought the sheets over her knees. The house was cold,
and the crazy man was gone. She was alone now. 'This is horrible! He's
gone… This would be the perfect time for me to escape, but he's locked the
doors and covered the windows with plywood!' She was shivering at a faster
pace. It wasn't because of the cold anymore. She was scared.
She was in a stranger's home, alone, and there was no way to get out. She
wished she could have been a more clever person right about then. A smarter
Kagome would have found an easy way to escape by now. 'If only I could pull
out the nails from the plywood, or I could throw something through the
door…but what if he sues me for property damages or something like that!'
(So Kagome isn't the brightest…)
She had the courage to step off of the mattress and explore the room. The
floor creaked with each step she took. 'This room, it's like a shrine… to me.
And I guess I'm the main attraction… The real live thing. But it isn't for
me. That person in all those pictures is someone else, a different person
entirely. So… why am I here?' She jerked back as she saw a flicker of light.
As she nervously turned, she felt a breeze brush behind her. 'Someone's
behind me!' She almost shrieked as she spastically turned around. She was in
a defense position of some unknown martial arts style.
"Huh?" There was no one there. "Then what did I feel just then? What was
that?" She began to panic. 'Oh no! There must be someone else in this house!
I'm going to get killed!' (…And she's panicking just now?) She slowly
tiptoed to the door, as if that could possibly save her.
She warily stuck her head out of the doorframe. Nothing, it was clean. She
took a reluctant step out of the room. She quickly searched the hallway for
any motion. Once again, nothing was there. 'Then what was that breeze?' She
looked back in the room. 'Oh, now I feel stupid!' She mentally slapped
herself. Part of the bedroom window was not boarded up completely. The air
had escaped threw the hole.
Then… she heard the door rattle.
-
He knocked the youkai in the jaw for a fifth time, watching the blood slowly
trickle down his chin. "I-It was just a joke…" the beat up guy whispered.
The blood bubbled at his lips as he spoke. "You weren't supposed t- AH!" He
let out a weak cry of pain. He scrunched his eyes.
"Come on! I didn't even do anything to you this time!" he yelled hotly at
his victim.
"Dude! Give Koga, like, a break! He probably has a concussion after you hit
him so hard! Inuyasha, let go!" The young Ginta tried to pull the hanyou away
from his leader.
"Fuck off!" the hanyou roared as he threw the young youkai across the empty
street. "This is none of your business!" He sent the young one a piercing
glare as he continued to hold Koga by his collar. "It's his own damn fault
this is happening to him! He caused this!" He saw red flash before his eyes.
At that point, even the angry hanyou realized he was going overboard. He
dropped his enemy on the ground roughly.
"You weren't supposed to-"
"Oh, not that again! What? Was I not supposed to beat the crap out of you?
If you made me believe you hurt a very close friend of mine? What did you
expect?"
He was answered by silence.
"Whatever! I'm leaving; I've got better things to do then wait for you to
mumble things.
"You fucking broke his jaw!" Ginta insisted on getting involved again.
Inuyasha jumped over to the young youkai and knocked him unconscious. He
cracked his knuckles. "Well, there's enough of that noisy brat."
-
It rattled still, louder and louder. Shuttering occasionally. And then came
a metallic tapping. 'What the?' The door seemed to come closer and closer
to her, like she was in 'The Shinning'. She took slow steps back, and she
was careful to not run into something. 'I…I don't know what to do!
Something's on the other side of that door, or should I say…someone?' She
ran to the further end of the hallway. She found herself in a kitchen.
'What now?' She was panicking again. Sweat was rolling down her forehead.
She scrambled around the kitchen, digging through the drawers and cabinets.
'There has to be something in here! If only I knew what kind of thing I was
looking for…'
-
And yet… there they were, on a date. Sango's archenemy, the District Attorney
Koharu, and Miroku were on a date together. She was laughing daintily as he
whispered sweet nothings in her ear.
Her heart seemed to shatter into millions of pieces right there. There she
was, Koharu, Sango's enemy in court. That woman was trying to get Inuyasha
killed. 'But… if Miroku's dating her… why did he try to help me with my case?'
She flashed back to the first day she had met him. He had openly explained
his theories on the case, and explained how Inuyasha could be innocent. 'Is
he some kind of spy? My God! This is worse than what he did to me last
time!' She gripped the napkin that was resting on her lap.
She bit her lip as her salad was finally placed before her. "So… you got the
chicken salad? Excellent choice," came Shippo's voice. She jumped in
surprise, with all those overwhelming emotions in her thoughts, she had
completely forgotten that he was there. "Sango, is something the matter? You look a little pale all of the sudden."
She jerked her head up so that their eyes met. "N-no! Nothing's wrong!" she
stuttered as she looked down at her salad and began stabbing the lettuce
with her fork. She looked up at Shippo, and she could see Miroku's face and
the back of Koharu's head. They sat right at the next table. She began to
wonder if Miroku had noticed her. She saw his eyes look towards her
direction. She tried to crack a smile, but then she realized he was looking
at Koharu, his date, not her.
She felt tears begin to form in her eyes. 'Oh no… I'm crying, aren't I? Why am
I getting so wound up anyways? It's not like he means anything to me! I hate
him!' She began to dig at her salad again.
"Sango, are you… crying?" Shippo asked. She could hear the worry in his
voice. He was a good friend, but he didn't understand what was going on with
her and she wasn't about to unload all her problems on him. She held her
fork still as it pierced a cherry tomato.
"Yea… I'm a little teary eyed right now, it must be the onions in the salad."
She sent him a reassuring smile and ate the tomato. This was killing her,
but worse… she didn't know why she was getting so upset. 'I knew he had a
girlfriend… but HER? Why HER? Of all the women in the world…'
…And then she cracked. As she looked at Shippo she could see the happy
couple behind him kissing passionately. 'No!' she screamed in her mind.
She quickly stood up from the table. "I'm sorry Shippo, but I have to leave
right now." She charged out of the café.
"What the?" asked a befuddled youkai. He then looked up, a rather large (and
not so cheery anymore) waitress stood in front of him.
"So, you're the man that made that precious child angry?"
-
The door finally busted open. She felt her heart stop. 'It's here.' She
looked up from the cupboard, and there he was- Onigumo.
She dropped the spoon and twisted her arms behind her back. She smiled
innocently at the older man.
His thin lips curled. "I couldn't open the door, the key didn't fit right. I
had to fight it a little," he explained. "What were you doing, girl?" he
asked suspiciously.
"Well, I didn't know what it was… or who you were and I was scared so I-"
"You were planning to attack a stranger… with a spoon?" He raised an eyebrow.
"Such a silly person." He walked towards her and cupped her chin in his bony
hand. "Don't worry, you won't be silly once you leave this house." 'You'll
be dead…'
He smirked as he threw his keys on the counter. "You should get some sleep,
the bags under you eyes are huge! You do want to look lovely, don't you?" He
wound his way through the hallway and closed himself in one of the
mysterious rooms.
"Uh…" She ran into 'her' room as quickly as she could. He smiled as he heard
her lock click. 'Like that will save you, you silly, silly girl.' He
snickered.
-
He found himself knocking on her front door again. 'Why am I doing this? Her
mom's going to think I'm so weird for coming here two days in a row. Wait! I
bet she thinks I'm trying to take advantage of Kagome or something! I bet
she thinks I'm a stalker! Maybe I should go back! But wait, if I leave
they'll get scared that someone knocked on their door at night and no one
was the-' His confused thoughts were cut off.
"Oh… Inuyasha? How nice to see you again! Would you like to come in?" Miss
Higurashi smiled as she opened the door further.
He smiled as he walked in to the familiar living room. "Umm… " He began as he
walked towards the sofa. "Can I speak with Kagome?"
He noticed Miss Higurashi's unusual silence and turned around.
"Miss Higurashi?"
"Uh? Oh!" she looked up at him. "I'm sorry, I zoned out for a bit." She sat
on the chair across from him. "You see, the things is… Kagome didn't come
home last night." She paused. "She did get mad at me a few nights ago… it's
probably my fault..." She trailed off, a hint of sadness in her voice.
"WHAT?"
-
She had finally stopped running and found herself on a park swing. 'I can't
believe I just ran away like that…' It was strange because Sango was
normally so strong. 'Why did I get so upset? Was it because Miroku is going
out with Koharu? Could that have really made me so upset? Why would that
hurt so much anyway? I'm already going out with someone anyway. Why do I
care what other people do?' She looked down at the ground. It was sand. She
grabbed a nearby twig and began to draw. 'Why did I run away when they… when
they kiss!'
She stiffened as she heard a sound come from the bushes. "Sango?" A familiar
voice called to her. 'Who, who is that?' She looked up at the voice.
"M-Miroku! W-what are you doing here?" She was startled by his appearance.
"What am I doing here?" he repeated her as sat down on the swing beside her.
He was panting- as if he had… run after her, maybe? "I was worried about you.
I mean, you just ran out of the café and you looked really upset," he
explained.
'He was worried about me? Why?'
"Tell me," he began with a slightly… protective… tone. "Did that guy you were
eating with say something to offend you?"
'Huh? Why would he say that? Oh!' "Him? No! That was Shippo, he was on a
job!" She laughed.
"Shippo?" Miroku put his fist to his chin. "Wow… I didn't even recognize him,
I thought he was that boyfriend of yours or something."
"Him? Nah, I just called him a few days ago. He was stuck in Maine. His
flight was cancelled because of the weather."
"Maine? He travels for a living?"
"Well… he's an actor actually." She blushed at the thought of her man. A
light breeze flowed through her hair.
"Actor? Well, that's an interesting job. I've alw-."
"Tell me something?" she interrupted him. "Why is it that you helped me on
my case when your girlfriend is on the other side of the it, against me?"
She turned to him. Her face was placid. It kind of worried him.
"Me? Well… it was the truth," he answered simply.
"But that goes against your girlfriend, this'll only make her job harder for
her," she challenged him.
"Well," he began, "sometimes old friends are more important to me then my
girlfriend." He stared back into her eyes.
-
"She hasn't been home? Oh my God, this is all my fault!" He panicked. He
grabbed his head and began to mumble. "She's probably gone suicidal because
of the things I've said to her! She'll never forgive me!" he whimpered to
himself.
Miss Higurashi laughed. "Inuyasha, don't worry. You've never made my
daughter unhappy. In fact, she turns into a ball of sunshine whenever you
are mentioned."
"Really?" He stopped worrying for a moment. Miss Higurashi nodded. 'She gets
happy because of me?'
"I'm not sure what you said to her, but I'm sure she'll be all right. It's not
like her to not come home, but this is probably just some spell of
rebellion. I've read in magazines that the most obedient children break the
rules at least once in their lives." She stood up and walked towards the
window. "I'm not worried about her, she'll be fine." She traced something on
the window and turned to Inuyasha. "All you need to do is go home and get
some sleep. Stop worrying about my goofy daughter and get some rest. You
look just awful with those bags under your eyes. I bet you've suffered more
over the things you've told her than she has." She giggled. "Young love,
it's so adorable."
He blushed deeply.
"Oh! I said that out loud, didn't I?" She giggled some more. " I'm sorry
sweetie, it slipped. Now," she motioned for the door, "you better get home.
That brother of yours is probably worried sick by now. He already called
over here earlier this evening!" She kindly ushered him out of her home and
closed the door behind him.
'She seemed… odd today,' he thought to himself as he began his walk home.
She leaned against the door after she closed it. 'I told him not to worry
about a thing… but both Kagome and Souta are missing tonight! I just don't
know what I'll do if either of them is actually in trouble!' Tears began to
poor from her eyes.
-
He obviously didn't know what those words of his did to her. 'Sometimes old
friends are more important to me then my girlfriend… What's that supposed to
mean? And why am I blushing like this!' She was glad that it was dark and he
couldn't see the color of her face.
"Is something wrong?"
"Hmm?" She looked up at him.
"Well, you just seemed really quiet all of the sudden."
"Oh, it's nothing. I was just thinking."
"Of what?"
"Stuff."
"What kind of stuff?" he asked.
"Well," she thought about her upcoming words, "I was thinking about us,
actually."
"Us?" He was a little surprised. 'So… I'm not the only one who's been
thinking of that lately.'
"You know, how we used to be." She sighed. "It's just so strange… ever since
I saw you again… a few days ago, I can't stop thinking about high school."
"Me either." He looked down.
"And I keep thinking of prom- about what you did."
'That's it, now I'm going to get it." He grinded his teeth.
"No matter how many times I think about what you had done, I can't get mad
at you."
"Huh?"
"Well, if you hadn't done that, I might not be like I am now. I could be
married to you-know-who, and I might not have gone to college, and I might
never have done a lot of things of done over the past years." She looked up
at the sky.
"Yea, about that, about what I did… I am sorry Sango, I really am."
"Oh, I know that." She sent a smile his way. "I knew that."
"'Knew'? What do you mean?"
"Well, I knew that you used to have a little crush on me- I just wasn't
interested. I knew you were just trying to impress me, but I thought HE was
more important at that time. I got carried away. I was kind of in denial
too."
"Denial? Why?"
"Because I liked you. Well, more than 'liked'. It was more like obsessed
with." She blushed.
"R-Really?" He couldn't believe it.
"Yea. I was just afraid that it might ruin our friendship or something."
"Oh, that explains it, I guess."
"If I hadn't been in denial… I might have actually been flattered. You had
gone through an awful lot of trouble to do that…"
"It was nothing… for the one I love."
"Yea," She giggled. "We could have been married or something!"
She was joking, but his laughs had been forced at that one. 'Yea… we probably
would have too…'
"This is nice."
"What is?"
"Talking like this. It kind of reminds me of back then. I almost miss that,
having so many good friends."
"Yea, but we all moved on and became so different."
"Yea…"
"Well," Miroku stretched as he stood up, "I really ought to get going. Now
that I know you're okay I should probably go back to Koharu."
She nodded as he walked off.
'She laughed about it… but we could have really been something…'
'Did he say, the one I love? Love, not lovED, but loves? As in, still do…?'
They were both horribly confused…
-
End of chapter six, jeez, this was a pretty long chapter! How'd you like it?
There should be a few less mistakes here…hopefully. Please review! Is it
still confusing? I'd hate for you all to still be confused…
Oh yea, sorry I took so long to update. Due to a few different reasons my writing was delayed, (Not that I normally update much faster or anything) But I had the whole week off (Mardi Gras Holidays…but I guess only us people from Louisiana get off for that huh?) So I decided to try and write something. So here's a chapter and I updated Dogman too (Not that anyone from here actually reads that one, I'm kinda disappointed, it's doing well on animespiral) well anyways, please review. Ask me anything you would like answered (about the story of course) and have a good day, and review dammit!